We meet President and Sister Brown

Our 4th of July was celebrated quite differently than usual.  We drove to Zurich, Switzerland for the first Zone Conference with our new mission president.  President Christopher Brown and his wife, Laura, and their son, Mckay, arrived in Germany on Friday, June 30.  They spent a few hours with the Kohlers and then the Kohlers left and they were on their own.  Despite jet lag, they had to jump right into interviews with the missionaries and Zone Conferences starting on Tuesday, July 4.  Our mission covers a large area, so this involves a lot of driving. They drove from Munich to Zurich on Monday because it is so far and takes a long time. We have developed a huge respect for all mission presidents and their wives.  It is an incredibly difficult assignment.  We are grateful the Browns have accepted the call to serve here in this mission.  They are terrific people!

They spent the first hour with the district leaders of the three zones in our conference.  Then they interviewed missionaries for awhile.  We started the main meeting and they introduced themselves.  Sister Brown had made a fun video/slide show with a questionaire to help us get to know them.  It was great!  She shared her conversion story.  It is really special.  She grew up in Fresno, California and was introduced to the gospel by her friends.  They were wonderful and loved her into the church.  Her parents were against it but she prayed and prayed and her father's heart softened and he allowed her to be baptized.  President and Sister Brown met at BYU.  They have 5 children.  Their youngest child, McKay, has a mission call to serve in the Berlin, Germany mission.  He goes to the MTC in August.  He came to the mission with them and is getting an up close view of mission life.
Sister Brown shared an incredible story about McKay in her talk.  She said he had a speech impediment as a child and couldn't pronounce some of the letters.  It was still a big problem when he turned twelve.  They asked him to give a talk in church as a new deacon.  He told them no.  He was very self conscious of his speech because people had a hard time understanding him.  They encouraged him to give it a try and pray for help.  He prayed about it and decided to accept the assignment.  He prepared the talk and prayed and prayed.  When the time arrived, he stepped to the pulpit and gave his talk very clearly without any problem.  Afterward, people wanted to know what had happened.  He never had another problem with his speech and went on to participate in theater in school and had the lead role in their production of a Shakespeare play.  Truly an inspiring story of faith and prayer.

President Brown talked about Preach My Gospel.  A couple of years ago he read the whole Preach My Gospel and every scripture reference noted in the book.  There are a lot!  He really knows the book and it was inspiring to us and all the missionaries, I am sure. He spent some time interacting with the missionaries, asking questions and getting feedback.  He sang a beautiful song.  (He has a great voice!)  He shared his vision and hope for the mission.  We think he will be great.  He had the opportunity to serve in the mission presidency in Wyoming for a couple of years.  He was a missionary in our mission when he was young and Bob's uncle, Bruce Lake, was his mission president.

They had to interview all the rest of the missionaries after the meeting, so we didn't have a chance to visit with them or get a picture with them.  We look forward to getting to know them better as time goes by.

Bob and I with Markus Gappmaier, second counselor in the mission presidency
 and brother of Gerda Stubbe, our Institute teacher in Dornbirn.

We were reminded of America's Independence Day as we drove to the conference.  We saw a van on the freeway with a big American flag filling the back window.  That was a surprise!  Then, all Americans were called into the foyer at the church where we joined our fellow Americans in singing the National Anthem.  Some of the sister missionaries made a special cake to honor the day.  We are grateful to be here serving in the amazing countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (and so appreciate our European ancestry), but we also love our great nation and appreciate our American citizenship and heritage.